the bishops, abbots, and nobles, contribute a portion of their rent, the inferior clergy a tenth of their tithes, and Eleanor conveys the treasure to Germany, and brings back her long lost-son ! CHAPTER XII. " Do you like letter-reading ? If you do, I have some twenty dozen very pretty ones : Gay, sober, rapturous, solemn, very true, And very lying, stupid ones, and witty ones." LETTER FROM THE KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN TO RICHARD. " To Richard Piantagenet, by the grace of God, King of England, your poor and unworthy servants of the Hospital of St. John, humbly set forth these things. We remember when it pleased the great Richard to depart from Palestine, leaving the Holy City still in the hands of the Moslems, that he pledged the honor of a knight, to return when the troubles of his own kingdom,should be composed, and once more do battle in the cause of the saints. " According to our poor ability we preserved the con-ditions of the treaty, and the land had rest from war. The mighty sultan, Saladin, then kept his goods in peace. But God has called him to the judgment to answer for his crimes against the christian nations. His brother Sapha-din usurps the throne of Jerusalem, and his sons strive to rend the kingdom in pieces, that each may take his share. " Now the Scripture saith expressly, A house divided against itself shall not stand,' and the fulfilment thereof is shown in that which they begin to do. A scarcity of food exhausts their forces, and it were easy for a christian army, while they lie torn with faction and reduced by famine, to march through the length and breadth of the land, and make the strong places our own. But the forces of the military friars are insufficient for the pious work ; therefore BERENGARIA OF NAVARRE. 269